This invention relates generally to the deployment of antennas and more specifically to systems and methods adapted to allow for the modular mounting and adjustment of a plurality of antennas in order to provide desired radiation pattern coverage.
It is often desirable to utilize wireless links in order to provide communication of information including voice and data. Accordingly wireless communication infrastructure has been deployed for such communication systems as cellular telephony and point to point microwave data links. However, as the demand for wireless communication increases, the available spectrum, i.e., the frequencies available for wireless communication, must be more wisely utilized.
Accordingly, communication systems have utilized directional antenna arrangements in order to limit the propagation of radio frequency energy to substantially within an area of interest, i.e., providing directional antenna beams in a predetermined pattern to illuminate only a desired geographic area with any particular wireless signal. However, such prior art solutions are typically large arrangements of antennas and support structure and do not lend themselves to simple adjustment of individual antenna beams and/or replacement of antennas. For example, such prior art structures often utilize the antennas themselves, such as broadside panel array antennas, as a portion of the structure in order to provide strength and rigidity without adding weight to the top of a mast. Accordingly, replacement of one such panel often results in the need to re-adjust other ones of the antenna panels. Accordingly, replacement and/or adjustment of any such antenna panel is often very complicated.
Moreover, such solutions relying on the antennas themselves to provide structural support prevent a particular deployment from initially including less than all possible antenna panels, such as when demand for the particular wireless service has not yet developed, and later populating the structure with additional antenna panels as demand increases.
As demand for wireless communication increases, it may be desired to provide additional radiation patterns in which to establish wireless links, i.e., narrower antenna beams to provide additional communication channels or better reuse of channels and/or additional antenna beams, such as overlapping antenna beams, in order to provide more capacity. However, often times the prior art antenna structures are adapted for a particular antenna arrangement or structure and cannot be easily adapted for additional or differently configured antennas. For example, prior art structures generally are not adapted to accept the addition of antennas in order to provide increased capacity.
Accordingly a need in the art exists for a mounting structure which allows the simplified installation, removal, and replacement of antennas associated therewith. A further need exists in the art for the mounting structure to provide for the expansion of communication capacity though the modular addition of communication equipment thereto. A still further need exists in the art for such a mounting structure to be compact in size in order to allow for its deployment in a number of environments, including environments where space and/or weight are limited. A yet further need exists in the art for the mounting structure to be adapted so as to accommodate a variety of commonly available masts or other support structure.
These and other objects, features and technical advantages are achieved by a system and method which utilizes a base adapted to easily accept communication equipment, such as transceiver equipment and/or their associated antennas, for deployment in a wireless communication system. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the base provides a platform from which antennas may be adjustably and removably deployed in order to provide communications within a selected area. For example, the base of the preferred embodiment may be deployed only partially populated with antenna modules, wherein the antenna beams are directed only at geographic areas currently desirous of wireless communication services. Thereafter, additional antenna modules may be added to the base to service additional wireless subscribers. The addition of antenna modules may include deploying antenna modules such that their beams do not substantially overlap in order to provide wireless communication within an expanded geographic area and/or deploying antenna modules such that their beams substantially overlap in order to provide additional communication capacity within the geographic areas already covered.
The base includes adaptation for mounting to commonly available structure, such as the commonly available 4.5 inch antenna mast. Moreover, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, adaption of the base for mounting is adjustable in order to accommodate a variety of such commonly available structures. Preferably, the base mounting includes coarse adjustment means to allow a rough selection of the azimuthal orientation of the base to be made and a fine adjustment means to allow the selection of azimuthal orientation to be selected with precision.
Additionally, support structure may be provided for the deployment of electronics associated with the antenna modules utilized according to the present invention. For example, in a preferred embodiment, the aforementioned base mounting includes adaptation to receive associated electronics such as a multiplexer/demultiplexer utilized in reducing the number of cables required to communicate signals up and down the antenna mast.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention includes predefined mounting positions adapted to removably accept the aforementioned antenna modules. Accordingly, both the addition of antenna modules as well as their removal and replacement are simplified as each antenna position is discrete from a next and is in a predetermined and fixed correct azimuth orientation relative to the base. Moreover, the base is preferably adapted to removably accept multiple tiers of antenna modules, i.e., an upper and lower tier of antenna modules, thus allowing a larger number of antenna modules to be deployed in less space azimuthally.
In order to removably accept the antenna modules according to the preferred embodiment, a docking assembly coupling the antenna module to the base is preferably used. In the preferred embodiment, the docking assembly includes coarse adjustment means to allow a rough selection of attitude or elevation of the antenna modules to be made and a fine adjustment means to allow the selection of attitude or elevation to be selected with precision.
The docking assembly of the preferred embodiment is suitable for use in attaching antenna modules in any tier of the base. Accordingly, a single common structure may be utilized for coupling antenna modules to the base of the present invention regardless of their position. Such an adaptation allows for a common spare assembly to be utilized in populating and replacing any antenna module utilized according to the present invention. Moreover, the preferred embodiment of the docking assembly is adapted for use in mounting subscriber antenna modules deployed at the other end of a wireless link associated with the hub. Accordingly, additional economics are realized from the use of the docking assembly.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.